


Over Nine Thousand

by Cameron_McKell



Series: Upon Further Review [19]
Category: Captain America (Movies), Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), Tron (1982), Tron (Movies), Tron - All Media Types, Tron: Legacy (2010)
Genre: Crossover, Gen, Jealousy, M/M, Misunderstandings, Non-Human Humanoid Society, Non-Human Humanoids
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-11-20
Updated: 2013-11-20
Packaged: 2018-01-02 04:20:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,312
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1052448
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Cameron_McKell/pseuds/Cameron_McKell
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It was great that they got along so well, and taught each other about their respective worlds. Really.</p>
<p>Tony wasn't jealous, that would be silly; he had nothing to be jealous over.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Over Nine Thousand

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the prompt:
> 
> Steve Rogers teaches Tron about User life, and Tron teaches him about computers. Tony's jealousy is over nine thousand. :B
> 
> I couldn't help but smile every time I read the prompt, so I kept some of it for the title.
> 
> It was fun to write this much, so I'll be adding to it in the future.

Just a few more letters, and he'd have the whole thing typed in...

 

… and the whole thing was gone. _Again_.

 

With a choked sound of frustration, Steve dropped the tablet on his bed, curled his fists into his hair, and turned to leave.

 

Tron was standing in his doorway staring, completely horrified.

 

Suddenly concerned for his new friend, Steve opened his mouth to ask him what was wrong, when he realized Tron wasn't staring at Steve, but _past_ him.

 

To the bed, and the tablet he'd thoughtlessly dropped there.

 

It was still difficult to remember that, strange as it sounded, that little slice of glass, plastic, and metal was home to a whole _community_ of programs.

 

“Sorry,” he offered somewhat lamely.

 

Tron just stood there for a moment longer, then walked the rest of the way in to check the tablet for damage. Steve didn't dare move while Tron made his inspection, steadily consumed with guilt, that when Tron relaxed and set the tablet back down, Steve slumped rather dramatically in relief.

 

“No harm done,” Tron said, back to his usual calm now that mass accidental-murder was off the agenda. He nodded toward the door. “User Stark asked me to invite everyone currently present at the Tower to watch the video file WarGames on floor 53 in 11.7 minutes.” Steve glanced toward his alarm clock – it was about twelve minutes to six – then back at Tron, who shrugged minutely. “Objective complete.”

 

“Yeah, that sounds like fun. I was just-” Steve glanced back at his tablet rather forlornly. He could probably start over again after the movie...

 

Tron saw the look, and picked the tablet up again, considering. “What were you attempting to do, before?” He held it out to Steve.

 

“Oh! Well, I was,” he stammered a little, cradling the tablet as if it was made of spun sugar. “I was trying to file my report electronically – like everyone else does – because I heard some people talking about having to 'do everything twice for the blast from the past', and then there was cutting links, and I tried to put the maps in but they kept disappearing, and all sorts of crazy stuff kept popping up, and then everything disappeared.” Steve could feel his face flaming with embarrassment, and wished the tablet would suck him inside so he could escape this conversation, even if the fall from where he was holding it to the floor would probably break the thing.

 

Tron nodded along to his confession, then casually folded his arms, “What program was helping you?”

 

“Pardon?”

 

“Not all programs have the same functions, or skills,” Tron gestured to himself, “I predominantly run security Inside, but also have been upgraded for gaming, and digitization. From the data you've presented, I think you need a word processor with imaging compatibility; also, possibly, a background in encryption. So who were you working with?”

 

“The one Clint said I could use for everything; it has the colorful swirl icon. I think it's called Crom?”

 

Tron made a noise that sounded an awful lot like the coffeemaker did after Clint had filled it with malted milk and sourdough starter in a heavily misguided attempt to make beer, and Steve sighed.

 

“I did the whole thing wrong, didn't I?”

 

“Yes,” Tron replied with his surprisingly-typical lack of tact, then leaned over to get a better view of the tablet screen; Steve tilted it obligingly. “If you have no objections, I could help you?”

 

Steve thought about it only for a moment, “Sure; thanks.”

 

They sat down to work.

 

That was how it started.

 

* * *

 

“We missed you at the movie last night,” Tony greeted Steve the next morning, saluting him with a coffee cup big enough to declare to the world that the drinker hadn't even pretended to go to bed at a reasonable hour; the text scrawled across its surface that said the same thing was unnecessary, but hilarious all the same.

 

“Yeah, sorry; I got caught up with filling out my reports, and by the time I'd remembered, the movie was over.”

 

Tony sort of shrugged and nodded before diving face-first back into his coffee tankard. “Happens to the best of us, now and then. Oh!” He snapped his head up, and pointed at Steve. “That reminds me. I was planning on showing you how to do all that stuff the 21st century way this weekend; you know, save on the paper and gas mileage, or whatever. I don't think I have any appointments, but let me check. JARVIS?”

 

“It's all right, Tony. Don't worry about it. Tron already showed me how; that's why we both missed the movie.”

 

“Oh.” Tony blinked a bit. “Okay. Well. That's good. Right?” He didn't wait for Steve to reply, “Right. Okay I've got to ask: how surreal was it?”

 

Steve chuckled at that, and Tony got the vague impression he'd missed out on something pretty entertaining. “It was something else.”

 

“I can only imagine,” Tony replied, then hefted up his coffee and stood. “Anyway, I'm due for a conference call in a few minutes, so I've got to run.”

 

Steve waved him off, and started through the motions of making breakfast, “Go play Mr. Big And Important. Have fun.”

 

“Save me a muffin or whatever-you're-making,” Tony called back with a wave, and slipped out.

 

* * *

 

“... How often do the components exit the arena?”

 

Tony perked his head up at the sound of voices from down the hallway.

 

“Out of the whole stadium?” He could hear Steve's voice verifying. “Not very often; it's more likely that the ball will fly off the field into the stands, but even that much doesn't happen too often.”

 

Steve came around the corner into the room, then, Tron at his side. “Does the runner use the club to fend off the base defense?”

 

Thoroughly intrigued by their conversation, Tony got up to follow them to the elevator while Steve laughed. “No, they drop it after swinging so they can run faster. And the proper term for it is 'bat'.”

 

“No parameters of the instrument resemble a small, winged mammal.” Tron objected, pressing the call button for the elevator.

 

Steve couldn't seem to decide how to even _start_ answering that, so Tony took it as an invitation to interrupt.

 

“Off on another adventure, kiddies?”

 

Tron gave him a Look,and Tony remembered that while he _appeared_ only slightly older than Steve, he was actually something like eleventy-billion in computer-years.

 

Nothing like the Forever Young duo to make a guy feel _really old._

 

“Captain Rogers offered to introduce me to the User sport of 'baseball',” Tron explained, and suddenly Tony was struck with the mental image of the two of them, each from another world in their own way, discussing modern baseball like some alien ritual, bonding over food, and starting riots over home runs.

 

This was something he _had_ to see.

 

He butted in just as Steve was attempting to get Tron to call him 'Steve' for the umpteenth time, “Room for one more in this party? I haven't been to a baseball game in forever.”

 

Steve rubbed the back of his neck, looking suitably abashed, “Sorry, Tony; I only had the two tickets, and the game's been sold out for weeks.” Tony opened his mouth to argue the benefits of his _very_ deep pockets for persuading people, but Steve continued. “You can come along next time, okay?”

 

The elevator doors opened, and Tony deflated. “Yeah, okay. Sure. I'll just watch it on T.V. Who knows, maybe you guys will end up on the Jumbotron.”

 

Steve nodded and waved as he directed a now puzzled-looking Tron onto the elevator. “See you later, Tony.”

 

Just as the doors closed, Tony watched Tron turn toward Steve. “Jumbo _Tron?”_

 

With a soft sigh in the otherwise silent room, Tony went back to what he'd been doing.


End file.
